11.22.2010

Yup, we've called it a day. No big fights or owt, Micky is moving to Belgium with his family and unfortunately we just couldn't get our shit together to do a European tour! We're all still good friends, and some of us may re-appear in other guises together. We'll see!!

The Skrotes from Portugal, never heard?!?! Portugal - bad beer, sun and beach, but hell - so many cool new HC/Punk/Crust bands come also from there. The Skrotes play catchy fast HC with so much power and cool riffs, that my grey, no silver hair was standing up!! for all fans of Ape Attack, Government Warning, No Sleep etc. here we go with The Skrotes.... from Portugal, to bad not from USA... fuck off!

It's no secret that we like rabbits here on End Hits. But we don't discriminate; we like all kinds of rabbits, not just harmless little Scottish bunnies of song. Tonight, a trio of local Rabbits are going to pick you up, pummel you, and thrash you to pieces. These aren't harmless little bunnies, but rather Rabbits, the punk-sludge-thrash-trash band who are dropping a new slab of vinyl (in inconvenient 10-inch format, no less) onto your quivering little whiskers.

This MCD contains three new songs -- two original compositions and a cover song that fluidly flow into a mellow psychedelia with proto-doom metal influences stemming from the 60s and 70s. “Witness” is perhaps less guitar oriented than before with the mood becoming more melancholy in the process; the music is heavy yet laid back and openly nostalgic without being sentimental or trite. The band’s biggest strengths are the haunting vocals of Jex and avoiding the usual trap of carbon copying its predecessors. As such this MCD should appeal fans of pastoral, psychedelic rock/metal with a firm footing in the past but not necessarily dwelling there -- timeless, really.

SOLLUBI are a side project from the guys of FISTULA and RAPE X. They play a very original kind of psychadelic / sludge. You can find the down tempo and the heavy sound of FISTULA with a psychadelic and noisy vibe made by RAPE X. They sounds like a tribute band of HAWKWIND

Modern, chaotic & noisy hardcore. Mixing hyper-melodic tunes with savage brutal parts, AFAD is one of the most exciting bands of the past 5 years. Strong personality and high musical consciousness seems to be the point for this magical band.

Desorden y Rencor is the second album from Spanish trio, Lords of Bukkake, and it brings 40 minutes of sickening slow motion Sludge/DOOM filled with dirty riffs, greasy feedbacks, high-pitched nuts vocals and lots of effects and electronics in the background. Extremely heavy, psychedelic and noisier / weirder than any of their previous material.

11.17.2010

EX FALL OF EFRAFA movement of leaves is an ongoing musical project created and performed by two brothers. We started this with the hopes of trying new things and challenging ourselves. We have deliberately tried to used instruments that we are not overly familiar with. This has resulted in a fairly generic and embryonic sound, which we quite like and think is worth sharing.

POST-HARDCORE. Finally back in print after unavailability, Gilead Media offers a redux on their LP release of MEWITHOUTYOU's sophomore album, "catch for us the foxes", on 180gr colored vinyl. With their 2nd album, MEWITHOUTYOU took the raw energy of their debut, "[a-->b] life", to new lengths. Featuring a more melodic musical approach, yet arguably more intense in it's presentation, "catch for us the foxes" was both startling and mesmerizing all at once.

SCREAMO-HARDCORE. The LP contains the out-of-print stuff from the split LP with SED NON SATIATA, the split 7" with AMPERE and the 2 songs that were on the US tour 7". This is one of the best french emotive hardcore bands.

USA-Import!!! BxPx are back again, billowing out barrels of grind that will pollute your mind like a 6-ft bong hit of From Enslavement to Obliteration. As with their debut LP, BxPx continue the tradition of no-thrills grindcore, keeping it direct and brutal not unlike their earlier band EXCRUCIATING TERROR.

After last year's self-titled debut, UNION OF SLEEP deliver their 2nd release "death in the place of rebirth". Yet again they dish out uncomplicated, riff-based songs and solos which are obviously rooted in rock, but they come with a doom-metal, sludge and even a hardcore edge. Ruder and more decisive, this record punches like a steam hammer! Besides...

11.10.2010

HARDCORE-PUNK. If the only thing that matters is a list of previous bands, skip to the final sentence and you will be very pleased. FRUSTRATION is the best new band out of Seattle right now. Their style can be best described as a dark punk approach to a MOT�RHEAD type sound, Complications or BORN DEAD ICONS might be a good sign post. Melodic and powerful, but still punk in scope and theme, think QUARANTINE. A sum of all those parts. For those that need it, ex-members of, CONSUME, COP ON FIRE, DECREIPT, BLACKOU

11.08.2010

Second full-lenght out for their european tour, ex-Disrupt, State of Fear and Consume, this is classic 90's-like crust like you would expect from the aforementioned names but with a personal unique touch.DOWNLOAD

11.05.2010

Blackened Death Metal as its best from Chicago, USA! A Brutal crossover of early Bolt Thrower, Entombed, Bathory! Mixed with newer Crustsound like Nuclear Death Terror! Some songs on the album begin with a slow melodic guitar intros performed by lead guitarist Chris McMorrow and rhythm guitarist James Meyer. They keep the beginning of the song soft and collected until the hammer of metal comes crashing down with a powerful speed. Other songs on the album cut straight to the point. These songs start hard and fast, and stay that way to the very end. Black Septembers’ The Forbidden Gates Beyond was a head bangin’, air-guitar playing, good time. I am looking forward to their next album. There is no word on when work on the new album will begin, but I will be waiting.

out 6th of November!!! Richmond’s COUGH delivers thoroughly massive, psychedelic doom on their aptly titled Relapse debut ‘Ritual Abuse’. The albums five epic tracks are impenetrable walls of sludge; at points suffocating and claustrophobic, at others warped and hallucinogenic. ‘Ritual Abuse’ is an impressive monolith of sound and volume, and one of the finest moments yet of 21st century doom.DOWNLOAD

11.04.2010

Connecticut super group Unforgiven feature members of Dead Wrong, With Honor and Ambitions and on this debut release bring six tracks of Cleveland-styled metallic hardcore that is compared to Integrity and Ringworm and newer bands like Living Hell, Shipwreck and Guns Up.

Managed to snag a few of these from the band before the band sold out of all of them. This here is the remaining stock of their physical demo "Losing Everything". Exceptionally self-recorded, you can hear the humble beginnings of what is now their signature sound. Limited to fifty press with a hand lino-cut block print cover, printed by the band.

Insanity seems to be disorientated as we continue into the new millennium and it is searching for a new home. While it hides within brutality throughout the rest of the world, its musical passion transpires directly into the heads and bodies of Flu.ID. Inspired by the noise and hardcore heroes of the past century, these guys put their musical work into the core of all being from the start. Rhythms get fractured like bones, songs are fragmented, beloved classics of the metal age are pulverised and over the ashes they strew a chorus of expending voices. It is not begging for a new drawer in the musical filing tray, it’s convincing by being itself - like a steamed-up version of Dillinger Escape Plan on some really good acid or something - you get the point?

Iots contains the songs of Flu.ID’s previously released 10 inches on Interstellar Records and Modus Operandi Records - completely remixed, remastered and pimped-up with some electronic interludes and bonus tracks. Iots thus can be seen as the band’s official debut album since the two 10 inches are not only completely sold out, but they also never received the blessings of a wide-ranged distribution… until now.

11.03.2010

NOISE-PUNK. "less" is the highly acclaimed 2nd full-length of NO BALLS from Sweden. Sexually driven, mean and nasty proto punk with no-wave hints. A vast play with associations, let the songtitles sink and fill the voids yourself for this raw in-your-face assault. Yet again a very good vinyl mastering that displays the details clearly and carves out the edges very precisely.

HARDCORE. MENS INTEREST features members of MIND ERASER with Shaun formerly of COLD SWEAT on vocals playing hardcore exactly as one would expect from this crew. A stark, frightening gem which is sure to satisfy both fans of purist hardcore, and amoral devotees of any more depraved corollary - raw and dirty with both speed and slow dirges as well as stops and starts throughout.

AMBIENT/DRONE-ROCK. Over the last years, Justin Broadrick of JESU has created his own sub-genre of heavy music by taking the churning pummel of his former project GODFLESH and augmenting it with the textural melody of '90s shoegaze rock. "heart ache" is the 2 tracks from their debut, clocking in at about 20min. each. "dethroned" is 4 tracks originally conceived in 2004 but completed in 2010 pulling together sounds from every era of the band's existence.

POST-HARDCORE. Hailing from the depths of Minnesota and Fargo-North Dakota, BATTLEFIELDS have been touring relentlessly and accruing massive accolades for their brutally honest music and astounding live performances and their 2 previous records, both released on Init Records. BATTLEFIELDS have definitely stepped up to the plate and created an instant classic in “thresholds of imbalance” that encompasses a new direction in extreme and epic mind-expansive music. BATTLEFIELS are the missing link between ISIS and CONVERGE, their brutal hardcore infused doom-metal is as head-explodingly heavy and visceral as it is soothing and cerebral. DoLP

HARDCORE. Members of CONVERGE, HOPE CONSPIRACY and THE CRED CHORD team up to play some metallic and crust-influenced hardcore with a strong underlying d-beat that takes influence from AMEBIX and NAUSEA and could be compared to contemporaries like DISFEAR or BLACK BREATH.

I feel guilty for telling Rickard(Guitar) to send me this for review. I will get beaten up and hated I guess but don’t take it personally. Rickard and Emma played in Disconvenience before Epidemics a band which I dug. But Epidemics well… They just try too hard to sound punk. And it fails miserably. I like one song(the song I heard and lead me to say yes to Rickard when asking if he could send it in for review) and that is Bloodstains. The rest just bores me to death. It’s too generic. The lyrics haven nothing to say and the whole thing just left my turntable with out a trace. And I guess that’s what’s going to happen after a few months. No one will remember this. Why didn’t Epidemics try to make a 7″ instead?

And last but not the least the press release is so goodamn funny: “Waking Up The Dead” is that punk record that will get the teens to dye their hair, tag their Converse shoes, skip school and do something good with their life. You said what? Is that a joke? Who wrote this? Please tell me it was an intern who aspire to write for Vecko Revyn. DOWNLOAD